CHAPTER XIV
THE WORK OF REFORM SOCIETIES
It is necessary to make a distinction between societies aiming to destroy animal experimentation, root and branch, and those which hope only to prevent abuses and cruelties. Antivivisection societies have been organized in different States. Of their activities it is not necessary here to speak. But another kind of organization has made its appearance, societies aiming solely at the prevention of abuse and the restriction of the practice within limits compatible with humane ideals.
The first society in America organized for the express purpose of prevention of cruelty in animal experimentation appears to have been the American Antivivisection Society, founded at Philadelphia in 1883. The object of the society, as defined by its first charter, was "the restriction of the practice of vivisection within proper limits, and the prevention of the injudicious and needless infliction of suffering upon animals under the pretence of medical or scientific research." To Mrs. Caroline Earle White of Philadelphia, more than to any other, was due the credit of bringing this first society of protest into being over thirty years ago.
It was believed by the founders of this society that the medical profession—so many members of which had recognized the reality of the abuses and the necessity of reform—would join in some common endeavor to restrict and to regulate the practice. But attempts in direction of any legislation met with decided opposition from the principal laboratories in the State, and although a few physicians of eminence lent their influence to the promotion of reform, the great body of medical practitioners stood aloof. And gradually the founders of the society came to believe that their position was wrong; that the policy of concession and compromise ought to be abandoned, and that instead of asking that any experimentation be legalized, the society should demand the total abolition of all experiments upon living animals.
At a meeting held in 1887 a resolution was brought forward favouring the change of the name of the society and the aim which hitherto they had had in view. Opposition merely to experiments of a painful character was not sufficient; from that time forward every phase of experimentation was equally to be condemned. The resolution was carried. And now for more than a quarter of a century the society has striven to influence public sentiment in favour of its ideal, the total suppression of all scientific experiment upon living animals, whether painful or otherwise. It is needless to say that they have done this in the face of innumerable obstacles, and doubtless with a recognition of the impossiblity of present success. Three times they have introduced into the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania a Bill for some restriction of animal experimentation, and always without avail.
Other antivivisection societies in different parts of the country, adopting the same ideal, were organized shortly afterward. So far as legislation is concerned, their efforts have met with uniform failure. They have succeeded, however, in keeping the subject before the world in making known the abuses of the practice and voicing a condemnation of its cruelties wherever discerned. I have elsewhere expressed the opinion that, even if their ideals are beyond present possibility of attainment, the constant, persistent, and unwearied protest of these societies against the cruelties and abuses of vivisection have helped, more than anything else, to keep the question a living issue.
In 1896 was organized the first society having for its object solely the repression of abuse, the American Society for the Regulation of Vivisection. Its object was distinctly stated in its title, and its work was confined almost entirely to the publication of literature. In 1903 the Vivisection Reform Society, organized to advance the same moderate views, was incorporated under United States laws, and the earlier society became merged therein. The president was Dr. David H. Cochran of Brooklyn, a distinguished educator, and the secretary, upon whose shoulders fell nearly all the work of the organization, was Sydney Richmond Taber, Esq., a member of the legal profession. Among its supporters were Cardinal Gibbons, Professor Goldwin Smith, Senator Gallinger, Professor John Bascom, ex-President of the University of Wisconsin, Professor William James of Harvard University, and men of standing and influence in the medical and legal professions. For several years its work was carried on with efficiency and enthusiasm, chiefly by the propaganda of the press. It has always seemed to me that the name of the society was especially felicitous, for it expressed tersely the object of the organization, not the abolition of all scientific utilization of animal life, but the repression and elimination of abuse. A year or two later there was incorporated at Washington the National Society for the Humane Regulation of Vivisection, the objects of which were identical with those of the earlier societies. For many reasons it did not appear expedient to keep in activity two societies with precisel the same objects, and into the new organization the Vivisection Reform Society was finally merged.
Another American society which has done particularly good work is the Vivisection Investigation League of New York. The object of this association is fairly expressed by its name; it seeks to investigate the practice, so far as inquiry is practicable, and to make known from the writings of experimenters themselves exactly what is done in the name of scientific research. In this direction the League has already done work of exceptional value and interest.
An organization which more than any other has distinguished itself for persistent, unwearied, and vigorous attempts to secure reform by legal enactment is the Society for the Prevention of Abuse in Animal Experimentation, organized in Brooklyn, New York, in 1907.[1] From the first it repudiated the suggestion that it was opposed to scientific experimentation upon animals under all circumstances; it has never denied that some benefits have accrued through animal experimentation, even though such benefits have been exaggerated, but it has bent all its energies toward securing such legislation in the State of New York as should limit the practice to competent men, place it under such legal control, render its abuse a misdemeanour, and all unnecessary and wanton cruelty a legal offence. Bills were therefore introduced for the appointment of a Commission of inquiry regarding the extent and nature of the practice at each annual session of the Legislature. Some of these Bills were reported out of the Committee, and one reached debate in the Senate. But investigation of the practice was precisely what the supporters of the modern laboratory do not seem to desire. They were strong enough to influence the Legislature against such inquiry, and their attempts to open the laboratory have so far failed. Will it be possible for ever to maintain this secrecy? That is the question for the future.